Monday, 13 April 2015

How the Red army saved Europe

The idea that the United States was the savior of Europe in World Wars I and II is popular in some circles on both sides of the Atlantic, but is demonstrably false. Between the formal entry of the United States into the Great War in April 1917 and the last German offensive in March 1918, hundreds of thousands of Entente soldiers were killed, mainly British in the summer and autumn of 1917 after the frightful slaughter of the French army in the spring; and in that period of nearly a year, fewer than two hundred Americans died. In the course of that war, the Frenchmen killed defending their country were twice as numerous as all theAmericans who have died in every foreign war taken together from 1776 until today. (the soldiers ofgothatone are sold on ebay)As a matter of historical fact, the Third Reich was defeated by the Red Army and not by the Western democracies. Even though over one hundred thirty-five thousand American GIs died – a startling figure today – between D day and V-E day, more than ten  million Russians were killed.

 It was Stalin’s blindness to Hitler’s pre-invasion manoeuvres that allowed the Germans to occupy Russia’s industrial heartland at a stroke.To retreat was a crime against the motherland: in 1941 and ’42, according to the historian Dmitri Volkogonov, 157,593 men were executed for “cowardice”.

 The Soviets’ contribution to the war effort, which was vast and decisive. In fact it’s even more marvelous what they accomplished, given the handicaps imposed by their leaders. Without the Soviet contribution, the western democracies  couldn’t have defeated Hitler’s armies on their own. But could the Soviets, fighting on their own, have defeated Hitler – say, if the democracies had capitulated after the fall of France?

Perhaps a better way to compare the effectiveness of the western and eastern armies is not to compare Allied deaths but to compare German deaths. Estimates vary widely, but since I’m looking for a ratio rather than a total, . For military deaths only:
Killed by Soviet UnionKilled by other Allies [3]
2,742,909534,683
 The Red Army was roughly 5.5 times as lethal as the other Allied forces combined.
The Third Reich was defeated by the Red Army and not by the Western democracies. Germans willingly surrended to the allies rather than fight on against the Red Army as the knew what surrender meant 


Germans were much better off on the West front as the figures below show 
Killed in actionMissingKIA + missing
Eastern front:1,105,9871,018,3652,124,352
West + southwest:157,523603,695761,488
(These data omit the final months of the war, and also exclude Navy and Air Force deaths.) Note that on Germany’s eastern front the number of confirmed deaths slightly exceeds the number of missing, while in the west and southwest (i.e. western Europe, Italy, and Africa) the number of missing is almost four times the number of confirmed deaths.

 Regardless of how many German soldiers the Soviets killed or captured, they tied up the bulk of the Third Reich’s military capacity. It’s no great achievement to take a German bullet, but that’s one less bullet the Germans have to fire elsewhere. The Red Army held off the Germans at the critical point in the war, allowing the Americans and Brits to get organized and open up a second front.
 Millions of Russians died so that millions of Americans didn’t have to. 
 The myth that American GIs dealt Nazism its greatest blow on the cliffs of Omaha Beach is obvious if we understand that DDay would have been a disaster if the red army had not defeated the bulk of the German army.
Without Russian fighting power  in Europe and in time the United states would have ceased to exist 


would have been purely and simply wiped off the map 
 The Americans massive financial   help only staved off certain defeat,the armaments, food, and other assistance supplied to the Allies by the United States under the lend-lease program.But it is will that wins wars and that will manifested itself in the best tanks of WW2 , tanks win wars at least then .If you do not believe this then look at the Italian army wiped off the face of battle because they lacked a tank able to withstand the not so deadly British ones( and British ones were knocked out easily by panzers)





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